POZNAN, Poland - America's partnership with the Polish people in the fight for freedom goes back almost all the way to the inception of the United States. That tradition continues today with Camp Kosciuszko: The first U.S. Army Garrison in Poland.
Camp Kosciuszko is named after the Revolutionary War hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko. In 1776, Kościuszko moved to North America from Poland, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general.
By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain and established the sovereignty of the colonies.
The American Revolution officially ended on September 3, 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. On June 21, 1788, the Constitution was ratified, and it became the official framework of the government of the United States of America. It is the oldest constitution in the world. Less than a decade later, Poland would go on to establish the second oldest constitution on May 3, 1791.
Several years after the end of the war for independence, Benjamin Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
To which Franklin supposedly responded: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
The legacy of freedom that the Founding Fathers left the American people has continued from generation to generation in the United States of America, but that heritage could not be contained to the borders of the USA. It can also be found at Camp Kosciuszko, where the spirit of freedom and brotherhood between the American and Polish people lives on today.
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